On the southern side of Kawhia Harbour there are some interesting rock formations that we have been wanting to kayak to, and this weekend we thought the conditions might finally be right. Felicity needed to visit the local doctor to discuss student placements, so she arranged to meet him late on Friday afternoon.

We discovered that the annual Kai Festival was happening on the Saturday, so the three possible camping places in town were booked out.

It was Auckland Anniversary Weekend, and the weather looked good, so on Friday morning we headed down to Coromandel with our kayaks on the racks. We had hoped to stay on the edge of Whangapoua Harbour, but we weren’t the only ones to have this idea and all the freedom camping spots were taken. In the late afternoon, and desperate to get in the water for a swim, we called in at the Kuaotunu Motor Camp and found they had a site vacant.

As the weather didn’t look too flash with regards to kayaking, we decided to explore the North Head of the Kaipara instead. After lunch on Friday we drove north to Dargaville then turned south again after crossing the Wairoa River.

Pouto Point is a small settlement at the end of the road. You are allowed to drive on to the beach and try and make it around North Kaipara Head and up the 107 kilometer long Ripiro beach before the tide comes in, but the only information I could find online described watching a stuck vehicle getting overwhelmed by the tide.

I’ve never visited Ahipara, so we took the car ferry from Rawene across to Kohukohu and drove north along the Mangamuka river instead of returning to Kaikohe. The south end of Ninety Mile Beach is quite pretty, but somewhat spoiled by constant traffic driving at speed up and down the beach.

As the two vegetarians in our party had gone back to Auckland for a party, we stopped at Kaitaia to buy some steak for our last dinner of 2017.

Although we have visited Opononi several times in the past, neither of us has ever crossed the harbour to check out the huge sand dunes at Rangi Point. One of the most popular tourist activities in the area is to climb to the top with a boogie board and slide back down at great speed into the sea.

At 10.00am we arrived at the wharf for the first ferry of the day, only to see it departing a few minutes early because it was full.

On Boxing Day our daughter and her boyfriend flew up from Wellington to join us for a week exploring the Far North. As the weather looked pretty good we decided to take them on an overnight tramp along part of the Te Araroa Trail from near Mangamuka Bridge into the Omahuta Forest.

When we did this walk a few years ago we continued on to Puketi Forest, but this time we decided to follow the Waipapa River down to a picnic area called Forest Pools.

Part of Felicity’s job is to recruit and encourage doctors to help train medical students by giving them real world experience. We’ve spent the last week touring around Coromandel in the motorhome visiting many of the region’s general practitioners.

Despite being on the road by 2.00pm we had a slow trip down the motorway out of Auckland, but things speeded up once we turned on to Highway 2 across the Hauraki Plains. Felicity was keen to try the beachfront spot south of Kaiaua so we parked up there and went for a long walk up the beach in the evening sun.

This weekend we’ve been out on the West Coast again. Early on Saturday afternoon, we launched the kayaks at Cornwallis Wharf and paddled north along the cost towards Laingholm.

Sadly, the wind caused just enough waves to make it relatively hard going, so we turned back at the end of Symonds Bay, and didn’t explore up the Parau Creek. Because rough seas require both hands on the paddle, there are no photos of this trip.

Tomorrow (Dec 5th), the Auckland Council’s Environment and Community Committee will make a decision on proposals to combat the spread of kauri dieback, including possibly closing the Waitakere Ranges Regional Park. Mindful that it may be our last chance to visit this beautiful area, we went for a hike around the Montana Heritage Trail near Bethells Beach last weekend and yesterday explored a couple of tracks near Whatipu.

It’s almost an hour and a half drive to the car-park at Whatipu beach, so it was late morning by the time we set off up the Kura Track, which follows the river up the valley behind the beach.

In between Pataua and Ngunguru is a river called the Horahora, on the NZ topographical map anyway. On Google Maps it is confusingly named Waitangi, despite the fact that there is much better known river with the same name in the Bay of Islands a bit further north.

We were determined to get away for the 3-day Labour weekend, but Felicity had to be in her office on Friday so we didn’t hit the road until about 9.30 on Saturday morning.